12 for '12

Hey,

Like many other photogs*, I've spent some time recently looking back over the shots I've taken this year and having another look over them. Did I do the best I could in terms of selecting which to post on Flickr and my Zenfolio site? Did I do them justice when processing them? It's an interesting and useful exercise to go through, as I often find my thoughts about certain shots change over time, or as I've picked up new information and ideas. It can be anything from spotting a better/different way to process a shot, or deciding you actually prefer a totally different shot from a sequence you took.

(* just as an aside, I still consider myself just a bloke with a fancy camera than a photographer...)

You will find many photography blogs picking their best shots from 2012, many picking the best shot from each month. Originally I wasn't going to join in with this as it's becoming a bit of a cliche (no offence intended to others) and perhaps too commonplace. I decided what it actually means is that I spend too much time reading photography blogs! Plus, last year I made a calendar for friends and family which I haven't done this year, so this can serve as the thought process for the shots I would have put in if I had done one... For me, the hard part is still trying to judge what is a genuinely good shot from someone else's point of view. Of course I think they are good or else I wouldn't share them, but I have the benefit of knowing why I took that shot and what it made me feel at the time - if someone else viewing my shots doesn't get that, then maybe my shot isn't as good as I want it to be.

Anyway, here we go:

January:

My choice to kick off the year is from a set of shots I took at dawn on Ferring Beach (Flickr set) and remains a set of shots I'm pretty chuffed with. It was very cold indeed and all shots are handheld in low light, so if anyone ever asks you if Nikon's VR lenses work, the answer is yes. A beautiful morning and I hope the set of shots have done it some justice. I could have picked a few from here but for some reason this is my favourite - no real reason other than it just is...

Dawn at Ferring: D5000, 16-85mm @ 22mm f6.3

February:

Not a huge choice of shots this month, but a nice stroll after a lovely family lunch led us to this view of the River Test near Longstock in Hampshire.

River Test: D5000, 16-85mm @ 34mm f7.

March:

This was a really quiet month for me photographically, so this is by no means a great shot, but I got to spend some time in Boston and I like the juxtaposition between the old and new buildings.

Canon Ixus point & shoot

April:

This was the month I picked up my new D700, so I had a lot to learn! Great camera and I've been very impressed with it since I got it (despite it currently residing back with Nikon for repair).

I was very pleased and excited to get up to the Lake District this month as it's an area I know well, plus the added bonus of a wedding to attend. Quite a few shots were taken: Lake District but the main choice for the month had to come from here: Zoe and Aidan's Wedding. In the end I've gone for this shot as to me it symbolises a nice moment of quiet and calm for Aidan and Zoe during an amazing, but hectic day for them. Congratulations Mr and Mrs George!

Alone at Last: 24-0mm @ 70mm cropped f11

May:

I could have chosen a few shots this month (you'll notice a theme developing here) - I like the majority of the shots in this set: Balloon Flight as we had such a great afternoon and evening finally getting on the balloon flight we had booked for Dad's 70th birthday the previous October.

In the end, I've gone with this shot as it's a reminder of what summer should be like in England - blue skies, sun shining, with fields full of crops and livestock. Unfortunately that's been a rare occurrence this year!

Summer on the South Downs: 24-70mm @ 70mm f9

June:

This was the trickiest month for me to decide, simply due to the number of shots I took this month. We had 10 days in Croatia which is an incredibly photogenic place. We were staying in Korcula which is a lovely old walled city, had a day trip to Dubrovnik (one of the most famous and most photographed walled cities) and encountered dolphins during a boat trip. No surprise that between us (truth be told, mainly me) we took over 750 shots. Narrowed it down to 190-ish for Flickr: Croatia Set. An incredibly relaxing holiday and an amazing photographic experience for me, although Sue has a slightly different thought on that as her main view was this:

Anyway, here is my choice as it was a perfect reflection of the great day we had relaxing in the sun (other favourites include this: Flickr and any of the dolphin shots).

Korcula Sunset: 50mm f1.8 @ f10

July:

This was a really tricky month to pick just one shot from. We had a number of really nice evenings with great light coming into the garden, as well as some lovely days out and about. The majority of these shots are here:  Flickr Pg9 

I went for this shot in the end as I love the level of detail in the leaves and water droplets. 

Maple leaves: 24-70mm @ 62mm f5

August:

This was a pretty straightforward choice for me as this was my clear favourite from a few days up in Yorkshire, although I also got some shots of owls I was really pleased with when we randomly found a bird of prey display in York City centre: Flickr. 

Yorkshire Heather: 24-70mm @ 70mm f5

September:

I had a couple of really memorable days in September taking photos of animals at The Working Horse Trust and The British Wildlife Centre, but I've picked this evening shot from near the top of Ranmore Common in the Surrey Hills as I think it captures the time of year nicely with the soft evening light and the harvested field to the lower left of frame. We also had some amazing skies in September (such as this and the shots near it in my photo stream: Flickr) so this was a month to call in terms of which shot to chose.

Looking out from Ranmore: 70-300mm @ 122mm f20

October:

Another tricky month as I ended up taking a load of nice autumnal landscape shots and millions (not quite literally) of shots of deer throughout the rut. This one sticks with me as this chap allowed me to get pretty close and it was obvious he was exhausted - I could see his eye lids dropping through the viewfinder. To me it is a pretty good image of the effect the rutting season has on the stags. The obvious shot would have been to show some fighting or herding.

Sleepy Head: 70-300mm @ 300mm f5.6

November:

I didn't have a load of shots to pick from in November, but I really like the way the sheep in the foreground lead you to the fence line, which then leads into the rest of the picture. The colours in the trees and the light and texture in the sky all add interest. 

Slindon Estate to the Sea: 24-70mm @ 52mm f11

December:

There were a few shots I could have chosen from the same morning, but I really like the light and detail on this shot. See others here: Flickr

Heavy Frost: 300mm f4 @f4

Two bonus shots (mainly for the novelty factor of getting photos of Sue):

Hope you've enjoyed this - as always I'd love to hear your thoughts on the shots I've chosen (or not chosen). Soon it will be time to have a think about plans for 2013. Best wishes for the New Year.

Thanks,

Cal

Missed Opportunity or Perspective Gained...?

It's been a testing couple of weeks to be honest, so apologies in advance if any of this comes  as a moan or a rant!

I had a short break to the Lakes planned, mainly to see family, but also a golden opportunity to take all my camera kit up and head out for some great scenery. I was going up on my own so could use it as an opportunity to walk where I wanted, as far as I wanted and take as much time faffing about with the camera as us photographers like when we are allowed...

I'd planned in advance so got a 16-35 f4 on loan to try out and was generally pretty excited - weather forecast good - cold and bright.

Didn't get off to a good start - took the camera out the day before I was due to go to the Lakes and the camera broke. Somehow ended up with an error and unable to change aperture settings - all lenses now only work at widest aperture. Not ideal for landscapes... 

As it turned out, that was the least of my worries. Packed up and headed off to the Lakes on Sunday morning, going great guns. Nice relaxing drive until the car broke down near the M42. Oh... No clutch, recovery lorry needed.

Phone calls and a bit of waiting later, off we set on the back of a lorry. Dave from the breakdown company was a star and got us up to the Lakes in good time and we even got the car onto the drive without smashing the gatepost. Was exciting though - steep hill, rubbish handbrake on the lorry and tight turn into the driveway made it all a bit of a squeaky bum moment.

Stuck mainly in the house for 2 days waiting for phone calls from the garage that never came. First time in my life I've been to the Lakes and not actually been able to get out to see them. 

It's all well and good having a moan, but in reality I was never in danger, I'm still in one piece and I've spent a lot more time with my Gran than I would have if I'd been off out and about.  It might even be a blessing in disguise as I found out a walker died when he slipped and fell on one of the fells in the ice. Thankfully my enforced incarceration meant I wasn't out there trying to climb the hills (especially with my recent run of luck).

Always try and look to the positives of a situation, I guess is where I'm going with this. Not only have I had quality time with my Gran, I've caught up on some ebook reading and got to mess around with my camera and lenses in the garden trying to take some worthwhile shots with no aperture control (although I still default to hand held shots and didn't use my tripod once!). The light was simply incredible, so I hope I've done it some justice. Yes, it would have been amazing to be out there shooting some landscapes, but there was no point going mad about it.

Waste of a lens rental too, but there you go. Camera is back with Nikon to be assessed and repaired and the car is up and running again! I've gone and bought a lottery ticket in case it's my turn for some good luck!

Have a great xmas and enjoy your time with family and friends.

News...

Hi,

Just a quick one - for those that are interested in such things, (as I definitely am!) Moose Peterson has released a new book that is specifically for the iPad:

Taking Flight is the name of this new idea from Moose - I've downloaded it already and am working my way through it, so will add an update at a later date. Be warned, it's expensive for an eBook, but it's incredible and like nothing you've seen before. I think it will be worth every penny - plus Moose has already said the purchase price includes any further updates for free.

I also highly recommend Moose's real, paper book Captured. It's really well written and informative - a mix of how to, and autobiography.

Finally - I've purchased a tripod! At last, after weeks and weeks of deliberation I've gone for a Giottos MTL 8261B. I've also ordered an Acratech GP bullhead - eye wateringly expensive but it looks awesome - a mix of bullhead, gimbal head and levelling base all in one. I will review them all once I've actually had a chance to use them.

Thanks,

Cal

Don't pass up a photo opportunity, expect the unexpected and don't forget your memory cards!

Hi,

For this update I just have a bit of advice really. As I can't claim to be the world's greatest photographer, either artistically or technically, I think all I can do from time to time is offer some advice about things I've learned or experienced over the last couple of years. I've kind of combined three ideas for separate posts into one, so stick with it - it's a long post but hopefully informative.

Firstly, don't make the mistake of passing up a photo opportunity... ever! I've made a couple of these mistakes just recently, and whilst it's not the end of the world, it does kind of irk a bit when you look back at it. I was on holiday on the island of Korcula, just of the Dalmatian coast of Croatia back in June this year. This coastline and the islands are incredibly beautiful and to be honest it's easy (and pretty understandable) to take this kind of location for granted. At a later date I intend to post up some of my favourite shots from this holiday and describe them in more detail, but for now the set on Flickr is here: Korcula set (yes, that is a lot of photos from just ten days away - just be thankful I whittled them down from the 780 I took in total).

We were staying in a great location and I'd soon realised that if I could be bothered to get out of bed early enough (about 5am) I should be able to get some great sunrise shots to go with some of the dusk shots I had already got. Rookie mistake - as most mornings dawned bright and clear (and perfect for the shots I had in mind) I let it slide and waited until the second to last morning of the holiday. I blearily woke at about 5, finally looked out the window at 5:20 and it looked good to go. I had the camera and lens ready to go, raced out of the hotel (well, shambled out about 10 minutes later), hastily got one shot off:

I love the colours in this shot, but I'd left a pretty shallow depth of field on the camera from the previous day and hadn't checked it as I was still sleepy. Just as I was fiddling about thinking of what aperture I wanted to go with, and whether to switch lens, the light started to go...

Luckily, I like this shot too, but it's not what I had hoped for. I wasn't happy, and neither was the Japanese guy who had got up early for some sunrise shots either. We sat there a while, hopeful that something else would happen - a biblical parting of the clouds perhaps, but it wasn't to be. That was it for the morning - a whole 8 days of perfect sunrises missed, all for one OK shot and a few others that weren't really what I wanted.

My second example is from just last week up in Yorkshire. We headed out in the car to go for a walk on the moors, driving past some glorious views and tons of heather with a car park in mind. I was itching to take a couple of shots but didn't want to stop our progress. Besides, it would be just as good when we got to where we were headed to... Well, let's just say, we had a good walk and I took a few shots, but nothing as glorious as what we had driven through. This was the best of the bunch:

The places we drove past were knee deep in glorious full heather in glorious sunshine... Oh well. Moral of those two stories - never assume you're going to have another opportunity as good as the one you have right in front of you.

To make up for the above, I was very lucky whilst in York to completely unexpectedly come across a bird of prey demonstration:

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

European Eagle Owl

Luckily I had brought my DSLR with me and could merrily shoot away whilst others struggled a little trying to catch the fast moving birds with phone or compact cameras. Moral of this story - expect the unexpected and always have a camera with you! The more you shoot, the more practice you get, the more you improve. It doesn't really matter what camera you have, just have something you are happy to shoot with and know how to use. More shots from Yorkshire here: Yorkshire set

Finally, and perhaps most obviously - don't forget your memory cards! I headed out to Sheffield Park Gardens with my wife on Friday on a glorious sunny day. It's a place we have been to often so I had some shots ready in my head, and some new ones to try - really in the mood to get some good shots. Arrived, got my camera out of the car and noticed the -E- sign on the display which means no memory card... B*gger!! I was not amused. It serves us right for having a day off work on such a lovely day. Plus our picnic was spoiled by marauding wasps... As punishment I carried my camera and two lenses round the whole time we were walking. I took a few shots with my phone which hopefully demonstrates my point above - I'm actually pretty pleased with a couple and this one in particular:

Sheffield Park Gardens, National Trust.

It proves (hopefully) the old adage that it's the photographer that makes the shot, not the camera. Having said that, it would have been great to have my DSLR ready to use! 

Like I wrote earlier, I had planned to make separate posts about these points, but they all seem to fit pretty well together and hopefully it will help stop some making the same mistakes themselves. It's worth bearing in mind, mistakes will happen - just make sure you learn from them.

Thanks,

Cal

Wings and Wheels 2012

Hi,

If you're at a loss with what to do this upcoming bank holiday weekend, why not take the family to Wings and Wheels at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.

It's a fabulous day out in support of some great charities (Brooklands Museum, Help for Heroes, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance and Cranleigh Village Hospital Trust). All the details are on the website: www.wingsandwheels.net and here are a few of my shots from last year to whet your appetite:

Mustang vs Mustang!

Beautiful Pontiac

Colourful Caterhams

Air Ambulance off to an emergency call during the show.

The Blades display team

Spitfire in the skies above Surrey once again 

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight  

Hawker Hunter and Typhoon

There is always a really good mix of static displays and action on the ground and in the air, plus loads of stalls and food and drink to keep you going through the day. The added bonus of it all being for charity wraps it up nicely.

I can't make it this year which I'm gutted about - if you go, have a great time!

Thanks,

Cal

P.S. Some more shots from last year here: My Wings and Wheels 2011 Flickr set

A state of Zen-like calm...

It's been a while since I've posted on the blog. It was my original intention to post once a week or so, but that clearly hasn't happened!

What have I been up to instead? Well I came up with the idea of setting up another website where friends and family in particular (and hopefully one day the general public) can see what I think are my best shots and order prints.

I set about doing some internet research on various hosting sites, starting with 500px as I already have an account there. I haven't used 500px properly yet and don't have any shots on there but I do use it to follow other photographers on there and keep up to date with their recent work. Think of it as similar to Flickr but aimed at a more professional user - you could say it's for people's best work rather then holiday snaps as Flickr can be sometimes. I don't mean that to knock anyone or their work on Flickr - that's just a perception. Anyway, on 500px you can buy shots and order prints, but not in the UK.

So I started looking specifically for sites that would have a linked printing partner in the UK. This pretty quickly narrows things down to Zenfolio (http://www.zenfolio.com) and Photoshelter (http://www.photoshelter.com Both have pros and cons. Photoshelter is aimed at the more professional end of the market with a ton of great features but a pretty hefty price tag. Zenfolio isn't quite as sharp but is still very customisable and is quite a lot cheaper - they both offer different levels of pricing depending on what you want. 

I've gone with Zenfolio as I didn't want to spend too much money on an annual subscription, for what is essentially an experiment - I'm kind of curious to see how to get my work out in front of the wider world, plus whether or not random strangers would actually be willing to pay money to order prints of my photos - we will wait and see! I'm not doing this to turn pro and I don't expect to make much (or any profit), it would be nice for the site to pay for itself though. You can also run a blog through the Zenfolio site too which is tempting, but I will keep this one running too - I can use them for slightly different purposes without creating too much work.

I've updated the links on my blog page so it's easier to find my Flickr Photostream, my Zenfolio site and also included my favourites to show other work from Flickr and 500px.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to get back on here soon with some more shots - I've not been shooting a great deal, but do have a few recent shots that might be worth sharing.

Hope you like my Zenfolio site - if you want try it they have a free trial period. Plus, if you go ahead, please use referral code GHY-E94-NCE which will get you a discount.

Thanks,

Cal

Some days it just doesn't work:

I probably shouldn't share this post with you in some senses, as I'm going to post some shots that I don't think are very good... Possibly not the best idea on a blog that is supposed to show people some of my better shots. Anyway, here goes...

There are a couple of scenarios that still really get to me as a photographer who is constantly trying to improve. One is when you have days where despite your best efforts, when you finally get home, the shots you’ve made just technically didn’t work (ie, blurred, focussed in the wrong place).

The other is when you get home and the shots you’ve made aren’t what you wanted/expected and you feel like you’ve wasted an opportunity.

I had both scenarios happen just the other day. The first was when I took my camera into work as I’d noticed a pair of Kestrels hunting around a field (I assume they have a nest nearby). I knew it would be difficult to get any decent shots as access to the field is limited and I don’t know who owns it. I would therefore have to use my 70-300mm at 300mm shooting over a low fence and hope the Kestrels flew close enough to get something worthwhile. Sods Law – they didn’t. I took some shots anyway in the limited time I had on my lunch break at least hoping to use it as practice for tracking moving subjects, panning etc. You guessed it, once I got home and looked at the shots I hadn’t quite managed to nail the focus on the bird:

Cropped shot to shot bird out of focus - you may need to zoom in further.

I’m half tempted to put this down to being just too far away and not having a nice long lens – let’s face it, wildlife photography can be one of the hobbies where the kit you use can have a massive impact on the results you create, but as you will see further on, this isn't a post encouraging you to go out and buy the latest and greatest. 

Before I go into that any further, let’s look at scenario two.

Friday saw the Olympic Torch Relay come to Dorking which is within easy walking distance of where I work. Luckily we were allowed to take time out to go and see the torch go past - let's face it, it's unlikely to happen again in my lifetime. I had my camera with me that day anyway as I had already had my not very good attempt a raptor photography earlier the same day.

I wouldn't really count myself as a street photographer, or even as a people photographer, so I knew going into Dorking and coming away with some really good shots would be difficult. I did think that at least I should get some decent enough shots to look back on and remind me of the day though. See what you think:

Nice moody sky but not a lot else.

Attempting to show the crowds

Didn't quite get the torchbearer in focus

Trying to be artistic with the droplets on the brolly

Hopefully you will think I'm being too harsh on myself for the nearly shots, but I just don't think I did the occasion justice. I spent ages trying to figure out why - had I made the wrong lens choice? Should I sell the 24-70 and get the 24-120 instead as then I would have had the better reach to switch from wide angle to the closer shots.


I'm not always best bright, but it finally clicked, that it wasn't about the lenses I had taken with me, it was the fact that I had been lazy - I had wanted to get a really tight shot up one of the streets but hadn't changed to my 70-300mm just in case the torch arrived. Most of my shots have loads of the backs of heads in them as I hadn't bothered to barge my way through and get a better spot.


After all that, one of my favourite shots of the day, and about the only one I think worked was this:

Totally random shot of complete strangers (and a bit wonky), but I think it sums the day up nicely. Young girl out to see the torch with her Dad, sitting on Dad's shoulders with her own torch, volunteer to the left of shot helping with the crowds, the dramatic sky, but the sunshine beating down at the same time. Magic.


Lesson for me - it's not about the kit you own, but the work you put in, your vision to see what's in front of you and make a shot of it, and yes, sometimes a healthy dose of luck.

Box Hill in all it's glory, complete with Olympic rings in preparation for the road cycling.

Thanks,
Cal